One of the 21
autonomous republics of
Russia, on the west coast of the
Caspian Sea, extending south into the
Caucasus Mountains, where it borders
Azerbaijan and
Georgia. On the west it borders
Chechnya, and on the north it borders the autonomous republic of
Kalmykia. The area is about 50 000 km
2 and the population about two million.
The capital is Makhachkala, which between 1857 and 1922 was called Petrovsk-Port.
Daghestan (sometimes spelt Dagestan) is home to many different ethnic groups, many speaking North-East Caucasian languages, and others being Turkic, Iranian, and Russian. The name comes from the Turkic dagh meaning mountain.
Daghestan was a Persian province before taken by Russia in 1813. There was continued resistance throughout the nineteenth century. Before the Soviet era there was a North Caucasian Emirate in the area. It became an ASSR in 1920. The president of Daghestan has been Magomedali Magomedov since 1987.
The flag in the Soviet area was one of the dull variations on the hammer and sickle, with the letters DASSR on it; in 1954 a blue stripe was added at the hoist. The post-USSR flag is a horizontal tricolor of green, light blue, and red. Between 1993 and 1994 an alternative design was in use, with unequal horizontal stripes of yellow, light blue, yellow, and light blue.